Robbers heartlessly kill a hapless old prospector who chances upon them as they're about to roll a boulder onto the track to stop a train that Cheyenne is on, guarding a shipment of gold. During the robbery, Bodie shoots one of the bandits and the rest take off with the gold. The mortally wounded thief fingers Cheyenne Bodie as their leader. As far as the sheriff is concerned, a dying declaration is all that's necessary for the trial. But Cheyenne has other ideas. He escapes to the Mexican village that the notorious Giff Murdock calls home, certain that Murdock is the mastermind behind the train robbery and other crimes. From past experience, Cheyenne knows Murdock is one bad hombre. But if Bodie is to clear his name, he must bring Murdock back across the border to answer for at least one train robbery.
South of the border, he meets Julio (Vito Scotti), a dapper Mexican who offers to be his translator. Then he finds Murdock (Robert Lowery) and his fiancé Francie (Lisa Gaye). But things aren't adding up; something about the way the man shuffles cards catches Cheyenne's eye. It isn't long before the mystery of Murdock is solved and, thanks to Julio's timely intervention, the gang is effectively rounded up, never to terrorize north of the Rio Grande again.
There isn't much else to say about this episode. The writing is prosaic and the story itself requires an improbable suspension of disbelief. The cast is good, but everybody seems slightly bored because they aren't given very much to do. Vito Scotti adds some energy and a humorous element as he often does in any part he plays, but in this one he turns out to be an unlikely heroic sidekick instead of mere comic relief. His is the most interesting element in this story, except for Clint Walker's Cheyenne Bodie, who is his usual strong, brave, and observant man of principle, determined to see even an apparently hopeless quest through to the end. Lisa Gaye, a familiar face in 50s and 60s television, costarred with him in two episodes of "Cheyenne." When asked in an interview who she felt best portrayed a cowboy, her immediate response was "Clint Walker! He is big, slow-speaking, and easygoing; he settled into the saddle better than anybody else." He did indeed, and in this episode, he proves yet again why he remains, for thousands of fans, the favorite cowboy of that era, even when the material he's given is less than scintillating.
South of the border, he meets Julio (Vito Scotti), a dapper Mexican who offers to be his translator. Then he finds Murdock (Robert Lowery) and his fiancé Francie (Lisa Gaye). But things aren't adding up; something about the way the man shuffles cards catches Cheyenne's eye. It isn't long before the mystery of Murdock is solved and, thanks to Julio's timely intervention, the gang is effectively rounded up, never to terrorize north of the Rio Grande again.
There isn't much else to say about this episode. The writing is prosaic and the story itself requires an improbable suspension of disbelief. The cast is good, but everybody seems slightly bored because they aren't given very much to do. Vito Scotti adds some energy and a humorous element as he often does in any part he plays, but in this one he turns out to be an unlikely heroic sidekick instead of mere comic relief. His is the most interesting element in this story, except for Clint Walker's Cheyenne Bodie, who is his usual strong, brave, and observant man of principle, determined to see even an apparently hopeless quest through to the end. Lisa Gaye, a familiar face in 50s and 60s television, costarred with him in two episodes of "Cheyenne." When asked in an interview who she felt best portrayed a cowboy, her immediate response was "Clint Walker! He is big, slow-speaking, and easygoing; he settled into the saddle better than anybody else." He did indeed, and in this episode, he proves yet again why he remains, for thousands of fans, the favorite cowboy of that era, even when the material he's given is less than scintillating.
